


A Dream Come True (or, Flowers for Camila)

by AlexandraHamilfan (SilverMillennium_QueenNeptune), TheWritePen



Category: In the Heights - Miranda/Hudes
Genre: Bisexual Character of Color, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, Gang Violence, Gangs, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Male Friendship, Mother's Day, Multi, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:27:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24005836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMillennium_QueenNeptune/pseuds/AlexandraHamilfan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWritePen/pseuds/TheWritePen
Summary: Camila Rosario has  prayed the same prayer every night ever since her son Lincoln left the family home.  She doesn't care that Lincoln is gay, or that he wants to be a writer, or that he fights with Kevin over the dispatch-- all she wants is for her son to come home.She never expected him to wander back to the barrio just to wish her a happy Mother's Day, but here they are. Her son is finally home, and she couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day present. However, surprises abound when her eldest daughter returns home from college  bringing her best friend and several secrets in tow.
Relationships: Camila Rosario & Kevin Rosario & Nina Rosario, Camila Rosario/Kevin Rosario, Lincoln Rosario & Everyone, Lincoln Rosario/Original Female Character, Usnavi/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 5
Collections: AO3 Haven Facebook May 2020 Challenge: Mother's Day May Flowers Silver Linings





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theheartoftheshadowcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theheartoftheshadowcat/gifts).



> Quick note for those unfamiliar with the Off-Broadway version of In The Heights who may be wondering where this came from: In the early drafts of the musical, in addition to their daughter Nina, the Rosario's had an older child. Lincoln was Nina's openly gay brother who shunned the dispatch in favor of becoming a poet. After coming out to his family, Lincoln left the house, tired of all the fighting. He was later cut from the show during previews and most of his issues given to Nina. 
> 
> Lincoln is intended to resemble Javier Muñoz, who was supposed to portray him before the part was scrapped. For the purposes of this fic, Lincoln left home two years prior to the events of the musical and is now returning home a successful poet and teacher. Per a request from a friend, Lincoln, who was canonically gay, is bisexual in this story. This fic was based on a roleplay between myself and my co-author and features the authors inserted as characters into the story.

It’s often been said that you can’t go home again. The idea is that once you leave, nothing is the same. Time passes and people change, and it’s never the way you left it. God, how Lincoln hoped that was true.

Because if things were the same, then he was a fool for ever coming back. He hoped that some things hadn’t changed. He wanted his father’s business to be successful, his mother to be happy, his sister studying to fulfill her dreams at Stanford and finally be the one to make it out of the barrio for good. Lincoln had planned to leave and never return, but there was something intoxicating about that block in Washington Heights that had grabbed hold of his heart and refused to release him. He was uncertain how he was going to confront all of the ghosts that had haunted and led him back here. But it was better that he did it now, if for only one person, one reason.

His mother. Camila Rosario had done everything to make sure that he had the best chances at a good life. It was almost Mother’s Day, and Lincoln could think of no better gift to give her. She would be so elated to find that he was coming for a visit. Camila had never stopped writing when he left, checking on him, making sure he was eating, sleeping, taking any medication he needed.

 _How beautifully ironic. A prodigal son returned. But I just can’t, for Mami’s sake. I can’t leave things the way they were. I’ve been gone for too long. If I’m home, it’ll give me some time to re-center. But it’s not just for Mami. I have other people counting on me._ There was his sister, Nina. His father, Kevin, who Lincoln imagined had denounced him as soon as he left. His friends, Usnavi, Benny, Pete and Sonny.

The thought of Benny made Lincoln’s chest a little tighter. Benny, the boy he’d loved, and who had been disgusted by the fact that Lincoln had perverted their friendship by catching feelings. Not something Linc meant to do, but not exactly something he could help, either. Was he ready to face all of that? Would Benny even care that he was back? Of course he wouldn’t. Benny had never loved him, he was too far up Nina’s ass to care. Lincoln could do better, and he was all too aware of it.

Sure, Pete would probably take him in if he asked. But guys like Pete. . . Well, his mother had warned him.

_“Stay away, they’re dangerous. They always want something. It’s usually something they have to find a way to take.”_

_All right, okay Mami, enough preaching! I hear you. I’m a grown ass man, I know what I’m doing._ Lincoln was coming home to give his mother her flowers before she was dead, to show her that the son she raised was not the failure that she or his father had expected him to be. Camila was the one who had nurtured Lincoln’s growth. She had given him the time and space to write. Hundreds of notebooks filled with hours upon hours of writing. Songs, stories, poems. His narrative, his truth, but all cultivated by her.

Because Camila could never bring herself to throw out her son’s art. Kevin had pushed, shouted at her that Lincoln could never become a famous writer because that wasn’t a career. He needed something sensible, practical. Something that would not fizzle out the way Kevin assumed writing would.

The one good thing Pete had done was to convince Lincoln to keep writing. Even when it frustrated him, he persisted. Pete was convinced that one of the Rosario children would be the one to succeed. They had all expected to see his younger sister make it out of the neighborhood. Nina was a good student, a self-starter who had always been counted on to represent the good parts of the area.

It was Lincoln they didn’t trust. He was a loner, a poet, a worthless schmuck in most people’s eyes—including his own father, which hurt Lincoln deeply. He had always wanted to prove himself, but he hadn’t gotten the chance.

Until now. This visit home was going to change everything. Maybe, if things worked out he could stop drifting and settle in one place. God willing, this would be his home again. It was where he belonged.

_I wonder if Mami will be happy to see me? Guess I’ll have to wait and see._


	2. Suspension of Disbelief

Washington Heights was always unbearable in the summer. It was hotter than any previous summer on record this year, and Camila Rosario knew when tempers were about to boil over. She had purposefully kept herself away from her husband when it was possible so that she would not become his target. It made her almost thankful that her children no longer lived in the apartment. Sharing the space between herself, her husband, their eldest son and their younger daughter was infuriating.

Lincoln and Nina were constantly bickering, and it never stopped with them. Camila had watched helplessly for years as her son, her daughter, and their father all fought for their own form of independence. When Lincoln had gotten his ear pierced, Kevin did not take the situation well. Camila had hidden in her bedroom, nearly sobbing as her husband chased their son around the room. He called him all sorts of names, told him that he was useless and would never fit in with the family.

Lincoln had broken her heart by insinuating that he was not welcome at home. They were not his family, because if they were, he would not be treated this way. She had never wanted him to feel less valued or loved. What had she done that was so terrible that her own son would not come home? Had she marred him in some way, neglected him or made him feel that he was less of a man because he did not want the job his father had offered him at the dispatch?

The dispatch that had been their entire livelihood for years, and had put food on their children’s plates. It had sent their youngest daughter to Stanford. Kevin was proud of that fact, and he never lost a chance to tell anyone how strong and smart his precious Nina was. Nina, who had graduated top of her high school class, was the one he could be proud of when people asked about his family. She was her father’s shining star. But then there was Lincoln.

Lincoln, Camila’s precious boy, her poet who spent hours upon hours creating for her. Songs, poems, stories, artwork. . . Anything and everything he could give her to make her happy. The one who had left the barrio and never called or wrote. Now, Camila could only hope that he was still alive. She wanted him home and safe, but what could she do? Lincoln had chosen to leave, walked out and abandoned the family after a rough argument. Camila had to admit in retrospect that she could not blame him for leaving. It was better than taking a beating from someone he loved.

Of course she did not think her loving husband was capable of such violence. She wanted to believe the best in him, but she remembered how terrified Lincoln had been. The day he left, he had come to her one last time. He had told her that there was no way he could allow himself to stay here with the family. He did not even want to say goodbye to his father. That had hurt more than Camila was willing to admit.

“I’m sorry, mami.”, was the only comfort Lincoln could offer her. He was out. Running out of patience and time to forgive and will to remain. She had done all she could to convince him to stay; crying and screaming that he was her boy and he couldn’t leave her, that his sisters needed him to protect them. She was out of patience. It was too much, and she was reaching the point where she no longer wanted to know when Lincoln was coming home. She could not afford to care, could not afford the emotional risk of being let down again.

Her son was an addict. Camila was devastated by that truth. She felt that she had done something wrong. Every day she questioned what had led him down the path he’d chosen. Lincoln was a troubled soul indeed, but what was so bad that he had to escape everything he knew. Camila had tried everything; hundreds of dollars invested in rehabs. Nothing had ever taken, so she did the only thing she knew to do. Camila had always been a devout Catholic, a praying woman. So she prayed, and she hoped, and she did everything she could to take care of her family. She wanted things to go back to the way they had been before all of this chaos with Lincoln, but she also knew it would take forever for her husband to admit his faults.

Kevin never meant to be a hard man, and Camila had no doubt that he loved her. He loved their children, too. But he had grown up in a household where advancement was the only acceptable form of success. If that could not be managed, you were useless. That was how his father had viewed Kevin for a very long time. It was Camila who had been forced to pick up the pieces of her husband’s shattered self-worth. She had done all she could to keep the same things from happening to Lincoln and Nina. Nina, who had pressed and pushed forward ‘til she was accepted at Stanford; who had gotten the best grades in high school and been expected to be the one person who would survive the barrio’s terrors. Unlike her brother, Nina had pushed forward, gone to college while Lincoln had run away to focus on his poetry.

How would he make a living as a poet? How would he survive until someone noticed his words? He had never had an answer, and probably never would. That hurt Camila deeply, though she’d never say it to Lincoln’s face because she was afraid. Afraid of him, of what he might do to someone who didn’t accept his chosen path. He had always hung around with the worst people in the barrio, and Camila had tried, to no avail to stop him. Kevin had tried to beat some sense into him, but no one touched Camila’s boy. At least, not that she ever knew. She knew that Lincoln hadn’t cared much for his father. But what she didn’t know, and what she would never be prepared for, was the firestorm that would follow when her prodigal son returned home. It would happen sooner than she thought.


End file.
